Richard Lindsey: Be inspired by students' expression

In light of the events at the end of last week and over the course of the week of March 30, I was asked to provide my thoughts.

First, it is necessary to unequivocally state that Marshall Public Schools understands and honors the rights of its students to exercise their free speech rights. Those rights are guaranteed by the federal and state constitutions and, frankly, seeing our students actively engaged in the process of debating the issues, creating informative posters, painting the rock, and being interviewed by newspaper and television reporters is exciting to me as a school board member and should be invigorating to our entire community.

I cannot imagine a better "teachable moment" for these students. Our public schools can and must educate students to become active participants in the democratic process and that process absolutely cannot take place without the exercise of free speech.

Second, it is important to understand the role of public schools in educating young citizens and future leaders in our community, state, and nation. Public schools cannot refuse to educate any student who meets the residency requirements to attend.

We cannot choose like a college or a private institution to allow some to join and refuse others. We are therefore faced with the task of educating students from a variety of different social, economic and other backgrounds. Marshall has recently become more diverse through our agreement with Albion Community Schools and our students and community have embraced this diversity.

The only way that we can successfully educate our students in this diverse and dynamic mix is to protect each individual student's right to learn in an atmosphere free from harassment, bullying, or oppression of any sort. This must be done while exposing students to content and ideas that may be new and challenging to them and to their parents.

When our students leave Marshall Public Schools, they will go on to careers in which they deal with this diversity in their day-to-day lives. This is not exposing our students to something that is bad or evil, that should somehow be covered up, or swept under the rug. It is helping them to acquire the skills to understand and empathize with different viewpoints and work to find common ground with those who at first you believe you have nothing in common.

These are the skills we need in our shops, factories, colleges, universities, communities, in the state Capitol in Lansing and in Washington D.C.

Third, the power of social media continues to grow every day and we need to act responsibly in using that medium to debate issues. Every reader should understand that the phrase I heard repeatedly in discussing this issue over the last few days was that social media was "blowing up" over this issue.

I heard it from students and adults alike. When the Enquirer article ran on-line, it contained multiple tweets from MPS students. When something happens in our schools, in our community, in our country, the immediate response seems to be to go to social media and comment about it.

As a community we need to understand and begin to act more responsibly in regard to those comments and tweets. Children read them. Adults read them. Both are affected by them. The schools do everything possible to stop harassment and bullying at school. We cannot do much to affect what takes place on social media and words do hurt.

What someone quickly writes without much prior thought can cause harm to others. I would ask that users of social media consider exercising restraint and common sense in what is relayed via social media. It is an awesome tool, but as quickly as it spreads positive information, it also spreads incorrect information and rumors.

Newspaper reporters now monitor Facebook for "news" and then report on it. Social media creates the news. Think about that for a moment and that when our student was injured week before last, for a period of time at least one local television channel was running information based solely upon a completely inaccurate report of what had happened but which was posted on Facebook.

In conclusion, Marshall Schools are inclusive and we will continue to embrace our expanding diversity. We honor and protect the rights of our students to exercise their rights of free speech and assembly.

What has happened over the last week should inspire us, not cause us to be embarrassed or afraid. The debate of ideas in a free society is fundamental to our system of government. We look forward to more debate and discussion and the understanding and common ground that will come through that process.

Richard Lindsey is president of the Marshall Public School Board of Trustees.